When I think day trips, the last place that comes to mind is Camden. However, the city’s waterfront offers one of the most impressive aquariums in the northeast, the Garden State’s own World War II battleship, not to mention the historic Campbell Soup Factory and the preserved home of a quintessential American poet.
After a 90-minute straight shot down the Turnpike, Exit 3 connects me to I-676 en route to Camden. Even with GPS as my copilot, I’m grateful for the signs that lead the way. Derelict neighborhoods with deserted streets remind me that Camden is one of the state’s most depressed cities, a circumstance not helped by the economic downturn and housing crisis.
But very quickly, the scene changes. After a few rundown blocks, I come to a bridge, and on the other side lies an oasis of green grass and new sidewalks welcoming visitors to the Delaware River. Camden’s riverfront is literally a diamond in the rough.
This section of Camden exhibits familiar signs of revitalization: old brick warehouses have been turned into luxurious lofts while a handful of homegrown restaurants have sprouted along the stretch from the majestic Battleship New Jersey to the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
FIRST STOP: ADVENTURE AQUARIUM, the epicenter of this riverfront renaissance. For $10, I leave my car for the day in the parking lot out front, which is near everything I want to see. If I feel lazy, a shuttle bus runs between the aquarium and the battleship¬—and a riverfront light rail can take you around town.
The aquarium is bustling as children pour in by the busload. My eighth grade class came here on a field trip long before the age of cell phones and PCs. Back then, the underwater tunnel through the impressive Shark Realm was being built. Now, it’s every bit worth the decade and a half to feel yourself safely surrounded by circling sharks. This exhibit boasts the aquarium’s newest resident, a great hammerhead shark, one of two that I’ve ever seen in captivity—the only other one in the U.S. lives in Atlanta’s renowned Georgia Aquarium.
That alone is enough to put this tourist destination on my map. But there’s another amazing offering that this facility shares with the one in Atlanta; for a price, you can suit up and snorkel in the tank with sharks and stingrays in the aquarium’s Swim with the Sharks adventure.
Though I could spend all day in the Shark Realm, I take time to see the hippos, penguins, seals, sea turtles, and sea horses, among other marine inhabitants. One of the best sights is children running up to the glass of tanks that are ten times their size, in awe and wonder. Parents and teachers stand by as kids gawk at fish as big as they are. A man excitedly points out all the fish to his infant daughter on her very first visit. Though children roam in packs, adults seem just as eager as the little ones to put their hands in the touch tanks.
AFTER I INDULGE MY UNDERWATER OBSESSION, I walk a few blocks to explore an attraction that is decidedly above water. The USS New Jersey lays claim to being the nation’s largest and most decorated battleship. Launched from Philadelphia exactly one year after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the New Jersey is now docked in the Garden State where she belongs.
My Fish ‘n Ship combo ticket from the aquarium grants me admission to both attractions for $31.50, but for reasons unknown, I have to exchange my ticket at the window before I board the ship. It’s just as well, because I pick up an audio tour headset. Navigating a confusing maze of decks and companionways and weaponry without the audio tour would have been a mistake—I couldn’t possibly have guessed what I was looking at, never having been on a Navy vessel of any kind. Even following the arrows and red painted line on the deck, at one point, I manage to enter a doorway meant for staff only.
Negotiating the close quarters inside and the steep steps outside, I couldn’t imagine being at sea on this ship for months at a time, but as the red line leads me deeper into the ship, the below decks provide insight into the life of the crew with sleeping quarters, the mess hall, laundry rooms, and various artifacts filling the cases of the ship’s museum. The mess hall still serves food to visitors, including those who pay for the unique experience of spending a night on board. It’s fun opening and resealing the heavy battleship doors as I experience this relic of World War II history.
I ABANDON THE SANCTUARY OF THE WATERFRONT and go in search of the historic home of a renowned writer. Only a couple of blocks away from the entrance to the waterfront, I walk along Martin Luther King Boulevard (also Mickle Boulevard) where the herringbone brick sidewalk is raised by the overgrown roots of trees lining the street. In an isolated row of houses¬ sits the wooden one that once was the home of the great Walt Whitman, who would spend his twilight years here. Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde visited him in this house, where he died in 1892 in the bed that remains on display today.
The house harkens to a time when this neighborhood must have been very different. Camden is a town alive with possibility. The beautiful pink blossoms of a lone cherry tree in front of a dilapidated brownstone say it all—the valiant survivor of a once-beautiful home on a once-beautiful street in a once-vibrant city.
For now, the waterfront springs to life only a few minutes away. Take the kids and enjoy a day in this surprising city. PM
BACKYARD ADVENTURECamden: A Diamond in the Rough
